Nothing on this page is typed in. Every number is computed from the log when the site builds, the charts are drawn from the same rows, and adding one hike moves every figure. Cloud cover means the low and middle layers together, the cloud that hides the sun; high cloud is cirrus, the cloud a sunrise lights up, and it is always shown on its own. A sentence appears only when each group it describes holds at least 5 mornings, so a chart with nothing under it has not earned a sentence yet.
So Far
The Sample
Color Index
Against the Cloud Layers
One dot per photographed morning, placed by its color index and by the share of the sky that layer covered at sunrise, from the weather archive. The fill is the morning's cloud cover, orange when the low and middle cloud was clear and gray when it was overcast. The dashed line is where the sentence under each chart splits the mornings. Each dot links to its hike.
Across 116 photographed mornings, the median color index was 30.5 when low cloud exceeded 50 percent (15 mornings) and 35.6 when it did not (101).
Across 116 photographed mornings, the median color index was 26.6 when mid cloud exceeded 50 percent (10 mornings) and 35.3 when it did not (106).
Across 116 photographed mornings, the median color index was 36.3 when high cloud exceeded 50 percent (46 mornings) and 33.9 when it did not (70).
Color Index
By Month
Every photographed morning in its calendar month, pooled across years, with the count under each month. A month with at least 5 mornings gets a bar from its lowest to its highest and a tick at the median; the rest show their dots and nothing more.
12 months have at least 5 photographed mornings. Median color index, highest first: October at 38.8 (9 mornings), July at 38.4 (9), June at 38.3 (12), April at 37.9 (10), May at 36.8 (10), September at 35.2 (14), August at 34.6 (15), November at 33.5 (9), March at 32.6 (7), January at 27.7 (9), February at 26.3 (7), December at 22.9 (5). The widest spread among them is February, 0.0 to 64.9.
Sunrise
Through the Year
The curve is the computed sunrise for the Cherokee Trail, Stone Mountain sunrise spot in local clock time, the trail with the most logged hikes. Each dot is a logged morning at its own measured sunrise, on every trail: orange when the low and middle cloud was clear, gray when it was overcast, hollow when no weather record exists. High cloud does not count against a morning.
Across 152 mornings with a weather record, 106 (70 percent) were clear at sunrise, meaning low and middle cloud together at or under 30 percent. By season: winter 52 percent of 31 mornings, spring 72 percent of 39, summer 73 percent of 45, fall 78 percent of 37.
Among the photographed mornings, the median color index was 36.0 on the 88 clear ones and 30.8 on the 28 others.
The earliest logged sunrise was 6:25 AM on June 13, 2026, the latest 7:57 AM on November 2, 2024, across 152 mornings.
Where along the horizon it came up: the sunrise sweep, one marker per morning on the reference view from the Boatyard dock, with the spread between the computed bearing and the sun in the frame stated as spread.
Reading This Page
What Counts as a Morning
A photographed morning is a hike whose front photograph is a sunrise frame with a color index. The weather belongs to the morning, so a morning with two frames counts once, by the frame that fronts its page, and a photograph from later on the trail is not a sunrise and stays out. Every logged hike with a cloud reading counts toward the sunrise chart and the clear-sky share, photographed or not.
The cloud fractions are the weather archive's low, middle and high layers for the sunrise hour, and cloud cover is the low and middle layers combined, as everywhere on this site. The color index is described on the methods page, along with the sources and their limits. Medians throughout, because one morning should not move the typical one, and no median or rank is stated from fewer than 5 mornings. The same rows are in the downloadable log, so any figure here can be recomputed elsewhere.